Is vendor/tool independance a strength or weakness for Consulting Services?

Hello all,

I've met with several consulting firms over the years, and found that companies that partner with a software vendor, or a SAM tool list this as a strength. Maybe they are a reseller, or an expert at implementing a SAM tool. On the other side of the fence, I've met with firms that boast about their independance from a vendor or tool. These firms claim that since they have no incentive to bring revenue towards the vendor, that they can focus on the customer success.

What do you all think? Is it a strength or a weakness to be a partner with a vendor? Are there benefits to both?

2answers

Voted Best Answer

As an end-user I've worked with vendors and partners in various scenarios - here are my thoughts from working with LARs and consultancies attached to LARs.

On the surface there you rightly become concerned about conflicts of interest. If a partner is selling Microsoft licenses to you why would you engage them in managing a Microsoft audit for you? Setting aside the awkward questions that arise when you end up non-compliant on a solution that they've sold you, who are they in greater thrall to? Software reselling is a very low margin business but still important in terms of revenue numbers, and they have targets to meet. However, they'll have intimate knowledge of your environment if you're treating them as a VAR, and that can help in terms of tapping in to free and usually quite competent software licensing knowledge.

I'm firmly in favour of keeping such relationships at arms length, you want to manage expectations appropriately and not introduce too much noise or sales pressure. By all means build the relationship but it needs to be professional - meaning you'll continue to go for competitive bids in order to keep them honest.

As to a consultant/reseller having a relationship with a particular SAM vendor I think the only way to determine if it's a good thing or not is in the quality of service they provide to you. How good is their internal support team? Are they available? What's their first-time fix rate like? Do they understand how your environment works? These are difficult to judge prior to starting the relationship. I've certainly had conversations with vendors who partner with more than one SAM tool provider and I always wonder what criteria they use to recommend one over the other. I'd hope it's something like fit for your business but equally it could just be how much margin they're getting from the provider.

Certainly if you're dealing with a pure independent they are only going to be going in to bat for you. Customer acquisition is challenging for those firms so they'll be keen to provide a good service and keep you as a customer. However, if it's a single engagement (e.g. manage an Oracle ULA renewal) are they incentivised to perform? That all comes down to the contract terms you've negotiated.

Answers

Speaking from the perspective of an independent consultant, I'm very much of the opinion that my independence is the key factor in any client relationship I have. Whilst I completely understand partnering with a service provider is a completely viable route to market for tool vendors, in my experience it does not necessarily equate to the best advice being given to the client by the service provider. That said, it depends on the type of engagement as well. If selecting a SAM tool and getting it implemented is a requirement of the client, then it's crucial to look at the market and see what fits with the clients needs - what technologies they use on-premise, cloud services and how the tool will integrate with their existing tool sets are all big questions, which can't be answered with a simple "we partner with X tool vendor".

With respect to resellers offering SAM services, I agree with AJ. Whilst there is obviously the opportunity to tap into free licence knowledge and advice, I would always be concerned about how independent that advice is. It's SAM service engagements where resellers tend to make the bulk of their margin and that is generally because it is an easy sell for a client with whom you already have a business relationship.